Following the change of cables on SB4059 there is now only one thing that I need to do, one more thing to sort out, one more thing that has bugged me the most about this build over the last couple of years. The one thing I’m talking about just happens to be SB4059 itself! Yes, the frame that all the bits hang from.

I don’t know who painted my frame, it was restored before I bought it but I think they may have used the Team Replica from the early 80s as their guide for which transfers to fit. SB4059 came exactly as you can see in the picture below. The “TI-RALEIGH” on the down tube is correct for this period SBDU TI frame but the “TEAM RALEIGH” on the top tube is wrong – this was changed in 1978 for SBDU frames to “TEAM”. My frame also came without the SBDU Ilkeston chain stay transfers, similar to the Team Replica, which is another reason why I think the Replica scheme had been followed.

This transfer represents one of the variations of Reynolds 753 tubing used between 1982 and 1989. Although it is wrong for the period of my frame, it is technically closer to the truth than it appears because SB4059 is fitted with the ‘753T’ version and not the ‘753R’. The later 753T tubing is a closer match to the original Metric 753 used to build SB4059.

SB3800 has an example of the transfer that SB4059 should display…

SB3800 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 Frame Transfer

This Reynolds frame transfer was fitted between 1977 and 1982, and displays the correct “TI-Reynolds Ltd” company name. The previous 753 transfer from 1975 to 77 used the earlier ‘Reynolds Tube Co Ltd’ name.

Now you might be asking why I’m just thinking about fixing this issue now? Why didn’t I do this when it arrived and before I started to put this bike together? When SB4059 arrived, I had no money left to do anything with the frame. I could afford to buy maybe one new part every couple of months. The frame had just been painted and I was happy with it, it was ok, but above all, I had just received a frame that I couldn’t wait to build, I was keen to start so I went ahead with fitting the parts I was buying.

I’ve built SB4059 to be as period correct as possible, I’ve invested so much time, effort and expense into this build and it deserves to be done, they are the only thing that isn’t to specification for this period SB bike.

After all the renovation and preservation work I’ve carried out on these frames over the last few years I think I’m now able to tackle this myself. But it isn’t straight forward, if it was then it would have been done along time ago. The problem is that both transfers are under clear lacquer, it isn’t going to be a simple case of removing them with heat or acetone. I need to remove the lacquer, remove the transfers, repair any paint, fit new transfers and apply new lacquer… that isn’t going to be easy… and while I’m doing that I also need to make sure I protect the rest of the frame, it isn’t going to be a full frame repaint, I am only working on a few inches to seat tube and part of the top tube.

And of course, to do that work, everything needs to come off SB4059.

It won’t take too long to strip and rebuild and I’m actually looking forward to having this back as a frame and fork again as I never documented or photographed it properly. I only started to document and photograph frames later when I began to build a collection and accumulate frame data. So it will be good to finally catch up with SB4059.

2 comments

I think if you ask the advice of a professional painter (Joe Bell) they would say : don’t attempt to do this, it’s highly unlikely to end well without a perfect color match, you will end up repainting the entire frame anyway, either leave it as it is, or get the whole thing repainted.